Great Lives

Carl Menger

1840–1921 · Austrian economist who founded the Austrian School and helped launch the marginal revolution with his subjective theory of value.

Philosophers19th Century

Carl Menger was born in 1840 in Neu-Sandez, in the Austrian province of Galicia, now Nowy Sącz in Poland. He studied law at the universities of Vienna and Prague and received his doctorate from Kraków in 1867. Working as an economic journalist and in the press office of the Austrian government, he noticed that the prices he reported did not fit the theories in the textbooks. His Principles of Economics (1871) explained value by the importance people attach to goods for satisfying their needs, and with Jevons and Walras he is credited with the marginal revolution in economics. He taught at the University of Vienna from 1873, became full professor in 1879 and tutored Crown Prince Rudolf. In the 1880s he defended economic theory against the German historical school in the Methodenstreit. His students and followers, including Böhm-Bawerk, Wieser and later Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek, formed the Austrian School. He died in Vienna in 1921.

Carl Menger is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Faith not well documented. Source: Wikipedia

See also: Ludwig von Mises · F. A. Hayek · Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk

Carl Menger, collotype after a photograph (c. 1885-1900)
Carl Menger, collotype after a photograph (c. 1885-1900) Source · Public domain

Key dates

  • 1840 Born in Neu-Sandez, Galicia
  • 1867 Doctorate in law at Kraków
  • 1871 Principles of Economics published
  • 1879 Full professor at the University of Vienna
  • 1883 Investigations into Method begins the Methodenstreit
  • 1903 Retires from teaching
  • 1921 Dies in Vienna

Major works

  • Principles of Economics (1871) · In the library
  • Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences (Untersuchungen über die Methode der Socialwissenschaften) (1883) · Began the Methodenstreit, the dispute over method with the German Historical School
  • The Errors of Historicism (Die Irrthümer des Historismus) (1884) · His reply to Gustav Schmoller in that dispute
  • On the Origin of Money (1892) · Essay in the Economic Journal explaining money as an unplanned product of trade

Read about them

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